The recent announcement of a resolution in the ethics case of Stan Sanders, a former candidate for mayor and later City Council, was anticlimactic at best. Even those Angelenos who avidly follow city politics might have needed a moment to recall just what the case was all about and why Sanders was hit with the largest fine ($31,000) ever levied against a city candidate here.
An audit by the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, back in 1993, found that Sanders' mayoral campaign had misused $53,490 in campaign funds to pay nine months of rent for his law office. Sanders has always maintained that nothing improper was done.
The question is: Why did it take so long to reach an agreement on a fine? The answer, in part, rests with the ridiculously small staff of the Ethics Commission. The city of New York, for example, has a separate staff of 41 whose sole responsibility is to determine whether campaign funds are being used properly. The entire staff of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission is composed of 16 people, including just two full-time investigators.
Many Angelenos fall back on the notion that this city has little corruption and wrongdoing and that the old eastern cities have huge ethics agencies precisely because they are so corrupt. That is an overly trusting attitude.
